


Pawnshop

by blingyeol



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Heaven, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 01:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3672108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blingyeol/pseuds/blingyeol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giving away a soul was, in many ways, a very worrisome thing to do. What happens to the said soul? How does one feel without it? If this was the Earth and he was a mortal being, a question like “does one die without a soul?” would suggest itself, too. But he was an angel and this was the Heaven, in nothing but the name, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pawnshop

The shop was a last resort to many. They say, had it not been for the pawnshop Archangel Choi Minho wouldn’t attain the title and Kim Kibum’s brand store would’ve gone bankrupt. Whether that was true was debatable but the shop did save many a soul, however ironic that sounded. For you did not present a valuable item as a collateral, you entrusted them your own soul.

Its outside appearance was quite ordinary. The shop had one tiled window, through which you could only see the dark thick curtains behind. No items on display, nothing but the red and black sign over the door indicated it was a shop and not just a common house.

Lee Jinki stood outside, evaluating his options. Not that he didn’t think them through long and hard over months but now that he was actually standing here, all the conclusions he’d come to suddenly felt baseless. Giving away a soul was, in many ways, a very worrisome thing to do. What happens to the said soul? How does one feel without it? If this was the Earth and he was a mortal being, a question like “does one die without a soul?” would suggest itself, too. But he was an angel and this was the Heaven, in nothing but the name, really.

Jinki grabbed the door handle and pushed. The insides were just as plain and very dark. The only window to the street was covered by said curtains and there were no lights on in the narrow room. Along the wall in front of him were shelves, some covered in dust, some polished. The dusty ones were usually empty, with just one or two jars on them while the clean ones were fully packed. Inside the jars was seemingly nothing but that nothing was worth a fortune.

No one came to greet him and Jinki had to force a cough and then call a hesitant “Hello?”

“Good afternoon,” came a reply from somewhere behind the counter and soon a short, young-looking boy came dashing in through an arch hidden behind a curtain. “And welcome to my humble shop.”

“Good afternoon,” Jinki greeted again. He’d heard rumours about the greedy devil of the pawnshop that steals souls but this was certainly not how he’d imagined him. Lively face graced by a warm smile, the shopkeeper looked anything but evil.

“My name is Kim Jonghyun and I assume that you came in to pawn your soul.”

The statement hit him like a rock and Jinki wasn’t able to confirm nor react to it in any way. Instead, he gulped and asked: “These are all souls?” while pointing at the jars.

“Yes,” Kim Jonghyun nodded. “All pawned here and waiting to be bought back. But you needn’t worry, no one is able to steal these unless they know a password. It might not look like it but the shelves are hidden behind a glass door that is password-locked.”

“Oh I wasn’t worried about that,” said Jinki but it did assure him a bit. “I just…”

“Can’t make the final call?” Jonghyun suggested, warm smile spreading on his face.

There was an almost eerie calmness and assurance in the boy and Jinki found himself staring into those dark brown, puppy-like eyes of his. “Yes. I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

“Of course it is. It’s giving up your most valuable possession, to a person you know nothing about.” Jonghyun opened a leather-bound book that was lying on the counter. “Least I can do is show you this. It’s all the angels and beings alike that had pawned their souls here.”

Jinki looked over the pages, tens and hundreds of names filling nearly the whole book. He imagined all the individuals struggling in life, coming here with a heavy heart and leaving with a hint of hope. “Are there those souls that were never returned, too?”

“Certainly,” Jonghyun answered immediately, without any visible guilt about that. “However they are only those, who didn’t live long enough to meet their deadline. Others, those were all returned.”

“Even if they didn’t pay you back in time?”

“Even so.”

Jinki found that hard to believe and considered it a merchant trick to lure him into striking the bargain right then and there. Nevertheless all these talks assured him it’s safer than it seemed and if nothing else Jonghyun felt like a kind, honest man.

“All right, I’ve no other questions,” he said and watched the shopkeeper nod and disappear in the back again.

When he reappeared, he was carrying another jar, same as all the others in the room. Jinki wondered how does the whole process work and if it would hurt but contrary to his expectation, Jonghyun didn’t open the jar. He spoke to it.

“Good afternoon, darling, we have a customer,” he announced to the jar and Jinki blinked at him in confusion. The jar didn’t seem to register any of the boy’s words, or perhaps it was speaking to him in a way Jinki couldn’t comprehend.

Jonghyun waited a bit, then frowned and raised his voice. “Dear, I know you’re tired but WAKE UP WE HAVE A CUSTOMER.”

Just when Jinki’s good opinion on the shopkeeper started going down, the jar answered. In a very lazy, silken voice it said: “You don’t have to shout, I hear you, I hear you.”

“What is that thing?” Jinki asked but did not receive an awaited explanation from Jonghyun.

“Did he just call me a thing?” the jar noted angrily. “A _thing_? How would he like if I called him a thing? Or a piece of meat and bones? A walking skeleton perhaps? Or how about-”

“That’s enough, May,” Jonghyun interrupted the jar. “Now shut up and do your work.”

The jar, whose name was apparently May, continued to grumble silently, but it abided Jonghyun’s orders. It started glowing bright red, then blue, then green. Jonghyun instructed Jinki to put his hands on it, and he did. It felt warm and tickled a bit.

The shopkeeper stared into the glowing jar, seeing something Jinki could not. He inspected it long and carefully, with brow furrowed and eyes sparkling with the reflected light. “This won’t do,” Jonghyun said after a while and the jar stopped doing whatever it was doing.

“I am terribly sorry, but I can be of no service to you, sir.”

“What do you mean?” Jinki didn’t understand. This was his last resort, his chance to start a new life. He was left with so little money he could barely make the living and he needed a large amount for a certain plan he’d come up with.

Jonghyun looked sincerely sorry, sad even. “I have my own code, you see. There are souls I take and there are those I don’t. It’s like accepting the good merchandise and refusing the bad one, except with souls it’s the other way around.”

“You mean my soul is too good to be bought?” Jinki asked, befuddled.

“Yes and no,” Jonghyun answered vaguely. “It is too good but not to buy. To use it.”

Jinki realized he never thought about why did the shop buy souls. It was such an obvious thing to ponder over but he never did, and that had him frowning in puzzlement. He wanted to ask but now was not the time. Now was the time to stay decided and fight. “I want you to break your code. I need you to take my soul.”

Jonghyun sniggered. “I’m sorry,” he apologized immediately and regained his professional tone. “Everyone who comes here is very eager to give up their soul and I know all the reasons. I shouldn’t laugh about it.”

He stayed in silence for a few seconds before following up: “I will hear your story.”

Jinki did not expect he’ll have to explain himself and plead. He had hoped that by this time he would be on his way home, with his pockets filled with more money than he’d ever seen in his life. Here goes nothing, he thought and started talking.

And so the shopkeeper learnt that Jinki was born to someone, most likely, but he’d never gotten to know that someone. The angel boy grew up in an orphanage and now he had nowhere to go and almost no money to use for living because he lost his job.

Jonghyun listened to him attentively, with compassionate nods and expressions. He supported him when Jinki criticized the system which assigns you a job and if you lose it, you are not given a new one for a whole year and have to live by whatever means you can find yourself. Finally, the shopkeeper smiled and responded: “Did you know that people on Earth believe Heaven to be an ideal place of peace? They believe they’ll go to Heaven when they die and that’s helpful to some.”

“I’d like to imagine Earth like that,” Jinki admitted. “I’d much rather be there than here.”

“So would I,” said Jonghyun and for a tiny fleeting moment they smiled at each other gingerly and it felt more like a meeting with an old friend than anything else.

But then Jinki remembered the purpose of all this. “So, I need to survive and this was my last hope.”

“So shall it be,” Jonghyun decided and patted the jar. “May, would you be so kind and do your usual job in these kind of situations?”

“You’ll take my soul then?” Jinki rejoiced, and watched the jar light up again, changing quickly from red, to blue, to green.

“Yes.”

He felt the weight in his stomach, settling in and making him nauseous. Then he put hands on the jar and felt the warmth, slowly spreading through his body. It calmed the anxiety and made his whole body ease up. And then nothing.

“Here, we are done with this part and now onto the payment.” Jonghyun started wrapping up real fast, in contrast to his actions up till now and Jinki frowned at him.

“This is it?”

“Yes, yes. Now just a second, I’ll go get the money.”

Jonghyun disappeared, carrying the talking jar with him and leaving Jinki by the counter to think. There was no difference. His body still felt the tickling warmth but his heart was beating the same, there was no change in weight either. It felt exactly the same as when the jar was checking his soul minutes ago. This wasn’t right.

The shopkeeper returned, still acting hastily, almost nervously. “This is your contract, sign it here please. You can read it if you want but there’s no catch to it, I promise that. Yes, here onto the dotted line.”

“There was no empty jar,” Jinki said abruptly, not paying any attention to the contract.

“Excuse me?”

“When you ordered the jar to take my soul, you didn’t have an empty one prepared for it. All of the others are stored over there,” Jinki made his point, now quite sure that neither Jonghyun nor the talking jar did no such thing as taking his soul.

“Oh,” Jonghyun paused, “but that’s a usual process. May takes the soul, stores it with her for a while and then I prepare an empty jar to put it into.”

“Why didn’t you take my soul?” Jinki persisted. “But you would give me the money, wouldn’t you?”

It took the shopkeeper a few seconds to decide whether to continue playing along or spill the truth. Jonghyun sighed. “That’s my code. If a soul is too good, too kind-hearted and pure, I never take it. But if I hear someone’s story and know they need my help, I pretend to take their soul when I really don’t. And I just give them the money.”

Kim Jonghyun was the oddest merchant Jinki had ever met. Willing to pay you for nothing, only because your story moved him and only because your _merchandise_ was too good. Jinki started laughing. Rather shallowly at first, but then Jonghyun picked up and they both laughed to their hearts’ content.

“You’re weird,” said Jinki. “And I like you.”

  


It had been a month since Jinki started working at the pawnshop. They made a deal with the shopkeeper - he’ll get the same amount of money a usual customer gets for pawning their soul, but he would work in the shop for a year to honestly earn it. He knew that Jonghyun would give him the money and be done with it, but Jinki couldn’t allow that.

Customers didn’t come every day. It wasn’t a bakery or a clothes store. But when they did, the whole bargain drained you to the point you felt like you’ve worked for days straight. At least to Jinki it felt that way, Jonghyun was oddly full of energy most of the time. Every customer had a story, some didn’t want to confide it in but some did. And some of those stories were the same as Jinki’s.

One such a person came on a very dull morning and interrupted Jonghyun and Jinki’s humble breakfast in a small kitchen behind the shop’s room. Jonghyun aggressively chewed on his toast and called out “I’m coming!”

Jinki followed him out, greeting a tall, skinny boy with dark, matted hair. His clothes were torn and there was nothing angelic to him, except perhaps his soul. When they ordered May to check it, Jinki recognized it himself. Instead of the usual ball of purple, almost black-ish strings that a soul was, this one had silver and gold in it.

The shopkeeper apologized to the boy, who introduced himself as Lee Taemin and explained his code in a very polite, sincere way. Nevertheless the boy seemed pure angried.

“I don’t care about that,” the customer said, hands clutching the counter. “I need the money to buy a passage to Earth.”

Jinki tensed up, awaiting the shopkeeper’s response. He saw him purse his lips and straighten and knew the answer before it came out of Jonghyun’s lips.

“I’m sorry, but I really cannot help you in any way. These are the rules.”

When Lee Taemin left with curses and tears dwelling in his eyes, the two of them returned to the kitchen without any words. Only there, while sipping his cold coffee, Jinki asked: “Why didn’t you help him the usual way?”

Jonghyun played with his teaspoon, eyes fixed on the tablecloth. “Have I ever told you about May?”

“Yeah, you said she was a lost soul you found and captured,” Jinki recalled. “And that you named her after the month in which you found her because she didn’t remember her name.”

“That’s right. They never remember anything. Such souls get lost because they were angels who decided to wrap things up here and go down to Earth. Those who do that lose their immortality, at least for as long as they are there. And when they die, their souls don’t die with them because they were born in a different world and don’t really know how to die the _human_ way. And so they wander, lost and lonely, until some of them - the lucky ones - find their way to Heaven.” Jonghyun looked up at him. “You said you’d rather be down there. I bet now you don’t.”

“So did you,” Jinki opposed. “You also said you’d rather be down there.”

The shopkeeper grinned in his usual, mischievous way. “I would also like to fly but I’m not gonna go and fling myself from a rooftop.”

Unlike what people believed, angels didn’t have the ability to fly. Possibly the only thing at least remotely similar to the beliefs on Earth were the clouds. Heaven was full of them - they were the ground and walls and skies and angels walked on them like people would on grass and pavements.

“I don’t want to support anyone who’d decide to go there. There’s nothing down there,” Jonghyun said and they both knew it’s a lie.

The shop had a rare place hidden deep in the basement. It was called the Eyrie and it was the first time Jinki saw one. They were scarce, illegal things that only the higher-ups and those with money could have in their houses. Jonghyun fell into the second category.

The Eyrie was a window to the Earth. More a lookout window since it could not be opened. But you could watch the people down there, each and every one of them.

It was only after three weeks of Jinki’s stay that he was brought there and he knew it’s an important display of trust. Jonghyun wasn’t one to keep secrets but he was a bit wary towards strangers. Jinki was no stranger now, though.

“This is amazing,” Jinki gasped. And it was. The view was truly breathtaking. The name for the place was appropriate - Jinki felt like an eagle flying through the skies, looking down on the lands and buildings and people.

Jonghyun could’ve warned Jinki that he is not to tell about this to anyone, because if the government knew they would close down his shop. But he didn’t. Instead, he confessed: “I spend most of my free time here. I come the moment I wake up, during lunch break, after I close my shop and leave when it’s time to go to bed.”

That explained Jonghyun’s mysterious disappearances, which Jinki considered somewhat of business trips up till now. He still had no idea how does Jonghyun use the souls, and even though he was curious, he patiently waited for him to start about it.

“There’s billions of people down there and just as many sad stories,” said Jonghyun while moving their point of view towards east, closing up on a small coast town and a run down house. “This here is a house of a little girl, whose father died on the sea and she has no one else now.”

Jinki knew why this particular girl was chosen as an example. “Just like me,” he said disappointedly. So Earth wasn’t so ideal either.

Jonghyun dramatically distorted his face at him, pretending to sob. “Do you consider me no one?”

Jinki thought about it. For the past weeks, he’d learnt a great deal about Jonghyun and considered all of them pluses. Except perhaps his horrible cooking skills. They both came from completely different environments but they did have a lot in common. And Jinki was quite convinced that if he were to instruct May to inspect Jonghyun’s soul, he’d see a bundle of gold and silver.

“Yeah, you’re Mr. No one. So you see, I have No one, indeed,” Jinki answered through a rather lame pun that hardly anyone would find funny. Anyone but Jonghyun.

When he was done laughing, Jonghyun changed the view back to the original one. “All these people on Earth... I suffer when they are in pain and I can’t but help them. That’s what the souls are for. Their energy is the only kind of power that lets you overcome the boundaries and change things. It’s a bit like being a god.”

“I should build you a shrine and worship you,” Jinki joked but he was moved.

Jonghyun waited but no more response came, so he nudged Jinki by asking: “Aren’t you curious why do I help them?”

“Well,” Jinki thought it over, “you’re a kind-hearted angel, which is a rare thing to come across but I always believed it’s not impossible.”

“Yes and no,” Jonghyun used his favourite answer again. “I probably am too kind-hearted for my own good, but I’m no angel. Not a pure blooded one at least. My father was human.”

People of mixed race were extremely rare. The boundaries between worlds were sealed and opened only once in a millenium. That was a very long time even for angels, who lived centuries and there were but a few who lived through two Gate openings. Angels didn’t die of old age, but they were not spared when it came to accidents, murders and some illnesses.

According to Jinki's knowledge, a person of mixed race could be born only during or shortly after that rare moment when the Gate opens. But that would mean Jonghyun’s age would be nearly thousand years.

“You can’t be that old,” Jinki said and went to further explain his trail of thoughts. “Gate opening is in a few weeks, which means the last one was a thousand years ago.”

“I could be,” argued Jonghyun. “But truth is, I’m not. From what I know, my ancestors came here as humans and gained the angel immortality, therefore living long enough so that their child could marry an angel and have me.”

“No one ever heard of humans coming here though,” Jinki frowned. “It’s always the other way around.”

Jonghyun shrugged. “I don’t know much of the story. My parents never talked about it and I found out about my origin quite accidentally.”

To him it felt odd saying all this out loud, and to someone he didn’t know for such a long time. Jonghyun kept it secret he’s of mixed race, just as he never talked about having an Eyrie in his basement or pawning souls for living. He was worried some, or all, of these things could mean his arrest and punishments.

“I wonder,” Jinki changed the subject, “do the souls you use get damaged?”

Jonghyun considered this, looking at him with an odd discontent in his eyes. “Damaged is a word too strong to use here. Used is what best describes it, I think. When I drain energy from a soul, it’s like when you do hard work and get tired.”

“Do they recover then, after resting?”

“No,” Jonghyun admitted and smiled bitterly. “That’s why I’d never use a soul like yours.”

  


The night after Lee Taemin’s visit to the shop was a sleepless one for Jinki. He kept tossing around in his makeshift bed on the ground, staring into the pitch dark ceiling or at the talking jar, which was shining at him ever so slightly from the drawer. For a moment he imagined his own soul in that container, trapped for eternity and having no freedom whatsoever.

Despite such thoughts he still wanted to leave for Earth. At least he believed so. Only, what with meeting Kim Jonghyun and working at the pawnshop, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Can’t sleep?” came a voice from up above him. Jonghyun was sleeping on a top bunk bed, which had a table beneath instead of another bed.

“Uh-huh,” Jinki nodded and turned around to see Jonghyun’s face staring down at him. Even though they were buried in shadows, Jinki could swear there was visible concern on the younger boy’s face.

“Come up here then,” Jonghyun invited him.

Jinki heard him shift, moving closer to the wall most likely and he hesitantly got up. It was warm under Jonghyun’s blanket and the sheets smelled like hibiscus. Everything in Jonghyun’s house had a distinct smell, Jinki noticed. And he also deduced the sweeter the scent the more important the item was.

“Bed’s your number one, huh?” he remarked while nestling down on the bed.

“Uhm,” Jonghyun started slowly, “sure is.”

“I can tell by the scent,” explained Jinki, feeling the awkwardness from the two of them being so close. “You use sweet scents for important things and this one’s the sweetest around.”

Jonghyun looked at him in slight confusion, then smiled mildly. “I didn’t even know I have any pattern.”

“I know you better than you do,” Jinki bantered. There was some truth to it, though. Him and Jonghyun were different in many ways but somehow he felt like they complement each other and have that sort of understanding for the bits of their differences.

Although he didn’t expect it, Jinki drifted off quite fast next to Jonghyun, almost as if a charm was cast upon him. And while being asleep, an arm wrapped around his waist but he didn’t know.

  


When he found an empty spot in his bed and on the ground that morning - blankets folded in an exemplary way - Jonghyun told himself he should’ve made the sleeping spell stronger. But he was fooling himself, because he knew he could but didn’t. Jinki never said out loud that he plans to leave for Earth but Jonghyun knew what he wanted to do with the money right from the beginning.

Jinki came to the shop five weeks before the date of once in a millenium Gate opening. Majority of people who came during that time wanted the money to buy a passage through the Gate, and Jinki was no exception. At first, he was willing to let him go, mostly because his was the most precious soul he had ever seen and denying it anything was just plain wrong. When it ended up with Jinki working in the shop, Jonghyun started hoping that by telling him about the lost angel souls, by showing him the misery on Earth, he’d understand staying is better.

The fact that there was a goodbye note was both comforting and dreadful. The feeling that he was important enough to Jinki that he’d think of leaving a note was comforting. But the idea of reading it was utterly, infinitely dreadful.

And so, Jonghyun took the note and buried it inside his pockets. He then wrote a message and posted it beneath the closed sign on the shop’s door. With a light backpack consisting of the most necessary items ready, the owner turned his back to his shop and walked away.

 _It’s not certain if and when shall I return, so please do not wait here and seek out your fortune elsewhere. Should I leave for good, the souls will be returned immediately_ , the message behind him announced to the world.

  


There was a queue at the Gate but Jonghyun pulled strings to get to the front fairly easily. The passageway was opened for exactly 7 hours and 35 minutes, as the countdown above the Gate announced. Jonghyun made sure to ask the person closest to the Gate and found out said person was waiting there since 5 in the morning.

Math was never his strong point but according to this information, Jinki probably passed through only minutes ago, or an hour at a maximum. But Jonghyun would count on the minutes since when they fell asleep, it was already past 3 in the morning.

He had hoped to see Jinki right behind the Gate, in the long tunnel that was the way down to Earth. It was translucent and he could see clouds and soon enough tips of mountains around him. A cluster of angels was walking in front of him and behind him, neither of them rushing forward, taking their time for this important turning point in their life. Some would be back by the next morning, Jonghyun was sure of that. Life on Earth was not for everyone.

Jonghyun tried to speed up a bit but even when he got ahead of ten to twenty angels, there was still no sign of Lee Jinki. He walked on, hoping against hope that he’ll see him anytime soon because searching the entire Earth for one lost angel would certainly not have a high success rate.

  


The air felt light. In Heaven there was this heavy, almost suffocating tinge to it but down here Jinki felt as if he could fly if he tried jumping up. It was quite the opposite he’d expect, as pretty much everything he encountered so far.

There was a fair deal of surprising things on Earth, but among them one such a surprise crowned all the previous ones. While he was strolling through a packed street, he heard someone shout his name. And when he turned around to track down the owner of the voice, there was Kim Jonghyun standing on top of a terrace right behind him.

For a rather long pause, Jinki wasn’t sure if he’s seeing right. Jonghyun certainly wasn’t supposed to be here. Maybe every angel had their counterpart down here? But if that was true, would such a counterpart know him too?

“I came to fetch you!” the probable Jonghyun shouted and snapped Jinki out of his surprise.

“Jonghyun?” he called out in a question while he weaved his way closer to the shopkeeper.

Jonghyun’s lips tilted into a smirk. “Hey, I know we haven’t known each other for long but I thought it likely you’d remember me.”

“So you’re really not just a counterpart, huh?”

“Counterpart?”

“Nevermind. What are you doing here?”

For a moment it looked as if Jonghyun’s actually deciding what to say, thinking up an untruthful scenario on the spot. Then his eyes sparkled with excitement and he said: “I followed you because I’ve made up my mind to stay here, too.”

“I wasn’t planning to stay though,” Jinki frowned. “Didn’t you read my note?”

Jonghyun felt the blood rush to his cheeks. There was something in the note that changed the whole situation, now he knew. He felt utterly, hopelessly stupid and embarrassed, and to hide all that, he laughed out rather unconvincingly. “Ah that piece of paper on the bed? I didn’t realize it was a note for me.”

There was a long pause in which Jinki was trying to come up with a suitable joke or a pun and Jonghyun counted the seconds of his awkwardness, until he decided to be the first one to break it. “That was a lame excuse, sorry.”

Jinki sighed. “Let’s grab a coffee and sit somewhere,” he suggested, weaving their way through the crowded shopping district. However short his time on Earth was, Jinki felt quite satisfied with the amount of experiences, to which having this warm, bitter sweet drink called coffee belonged.

It took Jonghyun over a day to find him. Meanwhile, he didn’t get to really enjoy being on Earth, as he was preoccupied with and very nervous about finding Jinki in time. Sipping the warm coffee and staring out of the window opening into the street was as wonderful as it looked like seen from the Eyrie. More so, even.

From this point of view, life on Earth didn’t look half as bad. Actually, the people around them looked happier than majority of angels. Across the street there was a bunch of kids playing in the thin layer of snow and he realized it’s hard for him to imagine the sound of their laughter, even though he saw their mouths open in mostly toothless smiles. In his whole life he never saw an angel child even as much as smile faintly. There weren’t that many children to begin with, as childhood lasted markedly shorter than the rest of angels’ lives, but those he met were all a grave lot giving off a feeling they spend their afternoons reading ponderous textbooks. Thankfully, hardly anyone remembered their childhood, just like a human child would not remember his first three years or so.

“So,” Jinki interrupted Jonghyun’s thoughts, “the note I left - which you most likely have somewhere in your pockets I’m sure - said I’m going to take care of something and come back shortly, in two days most likely.”

Jonghyun blushed, his hand instinctively sliding into the back pocket of his jeans. The crumpled paper was still there, folded carefully and hiding the message he just heard.

“I want to show you why I came down here,” Jinki continued, pretending to be blind to Jonghyun’s embarrassment. “Look at this.”

The photo that Jinki laid on the table had to be taken only a few hours ago. There was Jinki on the right side, arm wrapped around a little human girl’s shoulders. A girl Jonghyun knew very well. “Is that…”

“Yes,” Jinki smiled. “I found the little girl you showed me in the Eyrie. I wanted to help her, so I used the money you gave me for a passage and then for her. You can’t buy a family in a shop, but I at least bought her the house which they had rented only.”

Jonghyun was speechless. He might have been a merchant that sometimes gives out money without getting a collateral but Jinki’s level of a kind weirdness - as he liked to call it - definitely surpassed his. “You could’ve told me and I’d help her from up there, you know.”

“I know,” Jinki said simply, dazzling smile still resting upon his lips.

Jonghyun felt the laughter bubbling in his stomach, asking to be let out but he held it in, concentrating on maintaining a serious expression. “But you still wasted my money to do it personally.”

“Technically, it was my money. Part of it at least,” Jinki admitted, “but the rest would soon be mine too if I worked for you for the promised time.”

They both knew money wasn’t the problem here. Jonghyun himself would sacrifice everything he had to help anyone down here, or up there when it came to it. Being here, in a place he watched for years and yearned to come to, was the troubling fact.

Another sip of the slowly getting cold coffee reminded him they’re short on time. Once in a millenium the Gate opened and stayed that way for three days, no more, no less. “We have to go back,” Jonghyun stated, rather as a fact than his own belief.

Just like that, Jinki stated another fact: “We don’t.”

Part of Jinki still wanted to execute the plan he had in mind a month ago when he stepped into the pawnshop. Had Jonghyun not come down to seek him out, Jinki would return because there was a promise made and he would not break it. Now, however, with the person he made his promise to down here, there was no obligation to go back.

“We don’t,” Jonghyun repeated, staring at the foam at the bottom of his cup. Ever since he remembered, Jonghyun obsessed over the Earth. He’d read tons of books about it during his schooldays and he used his family’s renown to work as a Gate guard. That gave him the opportunity to actually observe the Earth, as the Gate fortress had one of the very few legal Eyries. That was decades ago, and yet, even after all these years of watching the suffering going on down here, Jonghyun still craved living here.

“We don’t,” he said again, this time with a smile and while looking Jinki in the eye. “If you’re staying, so am I.”

Jinki was quite convinced this was decided the moment they met down here, but just for the order he said: “We’re staying, then.”

  


The Gate on the Earth side was hidden beneath a lake, so it much rather had a look of a gate to Hell or whatever world might be resting beneath the planet. Jinki sat on one of many chairs in a room resembling a train station’s waiting room. Only there were no trains, but an elevator that lead up and into the translucent tunnel invisible from the outside.

The display said there’s only an hour left before the Gate gets sealed for another millenium. It would be a lie if Jinki said he wasn’t even a bit uneasy. But Jonghyun will make it, no matter what.

In total, the shopkeeper had seven hours to weave his way through now quite crowded tunnel, consisting equally of late comers going down and those climbing back up, and to run to his shop to take care of everything. There was no other option but to return the souls without collecting the payments, after all Jonghyun promised that in his hastily written goodbye note already. It took slightly longer than expected and the time left wasn’t quite sufficient for the second half of his mission: to put someone in charge of the shop.

Jonghyun’s first option was, naturally, his family. But he knew they wouldn’t have the understanding for the business and would certainly not carry on with his duty. Some of his customers came in mind, too. The ones he refused or paid without taking their souls, mostly. But he had no luck contacting any of them, until one he tried mostly out of desperation than actually expecting to get through, responded. And only minutes later, Archangel Choi Minho came knocking on the shop’s door, looking as tall and dignified as Jonghyun remembered him.

“I’m sorry for taking your time,” Jonghyun started with an apology and invited the official in.

“Not at all,” Choi Minho refused it sincerely. “I am glad to help a person I’m indebted to.”

Minho’s was a soul thread with more gold and silver than Jonghyun’s whole pawnshop was worth. It was second most beautiful he had ever seen, falling short only after Jinki’s. Jonghyun was glad the money and high position didn’t deplete any of its preciousness.

An hour later, the shopkeeper stepped out of the pawnshop, never to return again. The keys were in Minho’s possession, just like all of its secrets. Whether the shop will serve its original purpose or not was none of his concern now, but he did wish to believe Choi Minho will continue being one of the few helping hands in Heaven, in more ways than just being the Archangel.

By the time he reached the Gate, they weren’t letting anyone in anymore. There were 11 minutes left. His first instinct was to panic but he urged himself to stay calm and quickly observe the situation. The doorkeeper was a person unknown to him but there were always more of the workers serving at the same time when an opening was happening. Jonghyun stormed into the outside part of the fortress and scanning the room, his eyes found one of his former co-workers.

Pulling the strings cost him nothing much this time. At least nothing he could ever need anymore, as he was leaving forever and no money or item from Heaven would be needed where he was headed. It gave Jonghyun a strange feeling of lightness and ease.

Down the tunnel and through the elevator, Jonghyun was the last soul on the way from Heaven to Earth. The Gate was to officially close in two minutes when he made it through and the waiting room was nearly emptied. Up until now it was packed with angels who decided to go back home, just like Jonghyun predicted.

“I’m back,” he said rather needlessly, to a lone person sitting among empty chairs.

Jinki got up, breaking into a warm smile. “Let’s wait until the Gate closes.”

And wait they did. Shortly afterwards the display reached zeros and shut down, together with the elevator. Lights went down and a siren resounded in the waiting room, ordering them to leave the room. Together with two or three more angels, they went up to the surface and each their separate ways.

Jonghyun and Jinki stayed by the ordinary looking trapdoor leading into the gateway, searching the skies for the translucent tunnel but seeing none. Even if they could see it from here, it was most likely gone by this time, and will be for far longer than either of them will ever live up to.

In that meaningful moment, Jonghyun realized this is the end and Jinki thought it’s the beginning. Then they both thought the opposite, too and smiled at each other knowingly.

“So it looks like we’re stuck together again,” Jinki told him, grinning.

Jonghyun nudged him with an elbow, lightly once and harder for the second time but still not making him budge an inch. Like a puppy asking to be petted, Jinki though but didn’t bother to do anything about it even if he caught the imply.

“I don’t mind being stuck with you,” Jonghyun conceded, shifting his weight. When Jinki didn’t respond, he lost his temper and bluntly asked: “Can I kiss you?”

Jinki was tempted to say no but then he’d only delay finding out what scent Jonghyun has (if he was the one to choose it would be a mix of caramel and nougat and simply the sweetest of scents). He pulled the shorter boy in, kissing his lips. It felt thrilling and very much alive, a feeling Jinki hoped to find down on Earth. Albeit it happened through a most unexpected way.

Oddly, there was no distinguishable scent to Jonghyun and maybe it was all because they were now human beings unable to perceive anything Heavenly.

“I wonder,” Jonghyun said to that, their faces still almost touching. “But I don’t mind losing anything made in Heaven.”

Jinki considered that. “I do.”

“The scents?” Jonghyun suggested, pulling away because it felt a tad bit awkward staying close and not going for kissing Jinki again.

“Nah. I would mind if I lost us.” Jonghyun’s laugh ringed in his ears and that felt good, too. “Because we’re a match made in heaven. Literally.”


End file.
